HISD bond issue still drawing fireResidents at town hall meeting tell Saavedra their concerns are ignored

Published 5:30 am, Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Rev. L. David Punch of the Greater Zion Baptist Church interrupts HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra at the town hall meeting to ask him to take questions from the audience.

The Rev. L. David Punch of the Greater Zion Baptist Church interrupts HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra at the town hall meeting to ask him to take questions from the audience.

Photo: JOHNNY HANSON, FOR THE CHRONICLE

HISD bond issue continues to draw fire

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The Houston Independent School District should stop pushing its $805 million bond proposal and take time to address a laundry list of concerns from residents, dozens of community leaders said Monday.

Among the concerns of the roughly 100 who attended a town hall meeting at the Greater Zion Baptist Church were what they saw as HISD's inadequate efforts to solicit community input and the underfunding of repairs at schools in predominantly black neighborhoods in the Third and Fifth wards.

HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra told the crowd that the bond issue would provide $9,500 of construction money for each Third Ward student and $12,500 per Fifth Ward student, double and triple the amount that students in the more populated east and west regions would receive.

HISD's dilapidated facilities badly need the money, which would be used to build 24 new campuses and renovate 136 others, Saavedra said. It would also provide $90 million for security upgrades and $29 million for science labs at secondary schools.

But the stream of opposition has continued, despite a series of concessions Saavedra made last week. The superintendent admitted he should have solicited more community input and announced that HISD can finance the bond without increasing taxes.

John Hernandez, a member of HISD's bond oversight committee, urged the community to look past Saavedra's miscues.

The groundswell of concerns prompted the Greater Houston Partnership, the city's largest business-led organization, to decide again Monday to remain neutral on the measure. The group was an avid supporter of HISD's last two bonds.

"The business community does get behind the economics of the bond proposal, but not at the cost of such social divisiveness that we've seen so far," said John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co. and chairman of the partnership's board. "There is frankly too much social divisiveness separating the goodness of the bond proposal from the unintended consequences of those in the community who feel left out."

If HISD can prove it's willing to listen to the community — possibly by taking school consolidations off the table for now — the partnership may reconsider its position, he said.

The partnership is among those feeling left out, Hofmeister said, adding that he considers HISD's drive to rush this election a mystery.

"We felt very compressed in a time schedule that's also unprecedented," he said.

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